Forty-Four

It was nothing to say anger filled her voice. The group before her stared as if they had seen a demon, shock encapsulating their faces in one odd form or another. Rose did not much bother about that.

"Did you not hear me?" She stated as she took a step forward.

The floor beneath her melted, and her sword now radiated such a wild heat; blaring and shrinking, busting and mellowing. The haziness of the red flames formed and deformed, twisted and reshaped around the blade. As the smoke rose from her weapon, burning the mana in the air, she was not wholly sure she could control it—but she didn't care. Staring at the collapsed figure of Elsa, surrounded by the team with a bloody hole in her left leg, and a hand clutching her bleeding face, wrath filled her mind.

She would make them pay for hurting her friend.

"Lilias, you didn't finish the job? Were you too weak?" Reed asked the dragonian at that point, moving his sword in a new direction and staring—admittedly a bit shaken—at the burning weapon.

Lilias frowned, gripping her weapons towards Rose. "How was I to know she had an illegal function?"

"Damn whichever fucker made her. What kind of Gear is that shit anyway?" Nicholas spoke as his weapon trailed for her.

Fieth turned his bow and shrugged, a line of three arrows appeared on its blue string with a tug of three fingers, and he couldn't help but back away from the flames. "I think she's coming now. . ."

Seeing them not in the least bit to move, Rose lost her patience and charged forward. With mana rolling within her figure, her speed excelled at twice that of an average human and she closed in readily, cutting through half the distance in no time.

Three arrows came with a twip and she slashed her sword out. A wild blaze of fire busted forwards, ripping the air and devouring the attacks until fragments of shattered mana scattered.

Nicholas quickly scurried back as she closed in and fired in wild shots. Rose blinked, emerald eyes darting around, she stopped, and slashed.

A crack tore through a pulse.

She slashed and slashed, ripping apart the rest of the assault as her flames burned the attacks away.

"She's burning through my arrows. . ."

"Fuck, my pulses too."

They were speechless. Burning through mana shields was alright, those things were made purposefully thin, but his arrows were supposed to be as concrete and condensed as a mana pulse—and it was a fucking mana pulse!

"Charge your bow, Nick, get on the turret, I'll hold her down with Lilias," Reed replied and jumped to meet her head-on at that point.

At that point, they all ignored whatever commotion was occurring at the ends of the streets and realization struck that the hunters had become the hunted.

Two swords clashed and Reed winced as a flame burned his hand. He crossed eyes with the girl.

"Is there anyway you could leave us be?" He smiled.

Rose did not answer. There was only rage in her mind. She stepped back, dodging a kick and countering with a strike down.

A crimson blade blocked her assault as the dragonian appeared at her side. Reed took the chance to leap forward, two swords intercepted her and Rose merely willed <Igris>.

An explosion of flames flew and a scream followed it.

Reed landed upon the floor, crimson fire crawling upon him as he bawled. The usual composed male was nowhere to be seen when Rose walked closer, watching his torso burning while he wailed and rolled upon the ground.

She gripped her sword, yet, turned to the left as a whistle shot through the sky. A massive arrow of blazing blue pierced her healing torso and she found herself flung back.

Blood splattered against the melting asphalt ground, escaping both her lips and stomach. She gritted her teeth, the pain running through her and shaking her vision as she struggled to look up.

To her right, Lilias slashed at her own skin, cutting off the flames before they climbed any farther. The dragonian's body rolled with mana while she pointed a pulsing blade towards her. To her front, a girl laid collapsed upon the floor as a bow glowed and a turret vroomed.

Rose felt the energy within her core draining, trying to keep up with her healing and her eyes scouted the area, remembering what they had initially came here for. Spotting a mana orb on the ground at Lilia's direction, she pierced her weapon into the ground.

The ground shook.

"What the fuck is tha—!"

A pillar of fire broke apart the asphalt road, consuming the vehicle.

Another arrow came her way but she shifted her feet, dodging the attack and leaping towards Lilias. A bright blue ray shot forward and she rolled out of the way before charging.

Three weapons clashed and Rose glared at the girl. She stepped back, her sword came to the girl's shoulder, then left, and straight for her neck—

—clank.

A crimson blade blocked her advance.

"You shouldn't try to fight me in swordsmanship." Lilias spoke, emotionless as her second weapon came slashing diagonally.

"I'll do as I wish." Rose mouthed.

Flames exploded, the sound of bone cracking rang through Rose's right arm as she winced. The dragonian flew off, crimson fire upon her face with a scream following her.

Rose released a sigh and bent down, grasping the mana orb close to her. Ropes of blue came from her fingers, attaching to the item and sucking its energy out as she turned towards Fieth.

She raised her sword and pointed its tip towards him.

Three massive arrows left his bow, glistening intensely in the blue of mana.

"<Igris>, burn him." Her emerald eyes glared.

A pillar of flames shot forward, morphing into a phoenix as it devoured the attacks and shattered them. A bird's cry rang and wings flapped, eyes widened, and a beak opened to devour his body.

Rose walked past his screaming figure and stopped before a crawling man.

Nicholas looked up, fear igniting his face as the vehicle burned behind him.

"Did you think I wouldn't see you?" She asked the male. "Or did you think homunculi were blind? Hey, tell me, why did you harm Elsa?"

He looked into her cold eyes, shaking. He had leapt out in time from hellish flames only to meet the devil itself.

"P-plea—please—" He pleaded.

Her blade came down, piercing into his hand. His scream rang and she watched unhurriedly as fire crawled onto his skin. His begging did not cease even as the flames roasted him, consumed his muscles, tore through his tissues, and melted into his organs.

She turned her back on him and walked. The streets had quieted. The fighting at one end was all gone, the flying pulses had ceased, not due to anything but the raging sandstorm that had just broken into the outer layer of the slums.

She bent down, staring into the bleeding face of Elsa, and taking a look at her left leg that had a leaking hole. Rose couldn't help but bite her lip. Eyes shaking.

". . .I'm sorry, Elsa."

The girl coughed blood, she took a moment to suck in a breath and grinned even as crimson soaked her face.

"Ha—don't be, you really did a number on those fuckers."

Behind her, the conflagration around the impaled sword burned darker as Nick screamed. In time, he became only a lump of charred bones.